4 minute read
Vale Wendy Craven
Vale Wendy Craven 06/04/1958 - 07/01/2022
The story of Wendy and AG. Ch. Holly ADM, ADO, JDM, JDO, SPDM, GDM, SDM,
Queensland and Australia’s First Agility Champion.
Wendy started dog training in the 1980’s with a Shetland Sheepdog and competed in Obedience gaining her first obedience titles. This was Wendy’s introduction to all things dog.
It wasn’t until some time later that she moved to Ingham and joined the Ingham Dog Obedience Club with a new “red dog” Kelpie pup, Holly. Holly was from a working bloodline but didn’t have “papers”. Unfortunately, this meant that Holly couldn’t compete with the purebred dogs under the Canine Control Council (CCCQ) rules of the time.
Holly was a very intelligent dog and was full of energy but if there ever was a difficult and chaotic dog with attitude, it was Holly. Wendy started Obedience training with Holly at a very early age and struggled with the training. Holly would often bite Wendy when she tried to put her in the drop position and Wendy had to crash tackle the lead as Holly zoomed past on her recalls. Not long after starting with the club Wendy was introduced to Agility. Wendy had never heard of Agility and the instructors were only able to tell the participants about the end result but were unable to tell them how to achieve it. So, Wendy was self-taught through a dog training magazine called Clean Run and videos that she had borrowed.
Eventually she entered her first trial. Holly barked her way around the course missing half of the obstacles, then played tug with the rope exclusion zone and decided that contacts were not her thing.
By the end of 2003 Holly had gained her nonpedigree Masters Agility and Jumping Titles as well as her Companion Dog and Endurance Trial titles with at least another 10 or so qualifiers.
On the 1st July 2005 ANKC / CCCQ introduced the Associate Dog Register for crossbreeds and purebred non-papered dogs. This was the introduction of the officially recognised achievements in the ring.
However, this now meant that the new Associate Registered dogs had to start the process again from scratch. Holly had gained her Novice, Excellent and Masters Agility and Jumping titles by the end of 2005.
WENDY AND HOLLY
WENDY AND CODIE
In 2006, ANKC / CCCQ introduced the new title of Agility Champion. The scoring system for Ag. Champ. was different to what it is now. For Holly to gain the title of Agility Champion starting again from scratch from Novice, Excellent through to Masters in Agility and Jumping, in total she had to achieve some 70 qualifying scores.
This was a remarkable achievement in less than 2 years and thousands of kilometres travelled.
At the end of her career Holly had also gained her Open Agility (ADO) and Jumpers (JDO) and Masters Snooker (SDM), Masters Gamblers (GDM) and Masters Strategic Pairs (SPDM) titles.
Holly was also successful in achieving her Australian Agility Champion (AAC) with another Australia Agility governing body thus making her a dual Agility Champion as well as the International Agility Dog (IAD) status.
Wendy continued competing with another two of her working Kelpies, Codie and Marla, until they retired. Sadly some 4 years ago Wendy suffered ill-health which took its toll, but she fought it with the tenacity that she was renowned for, and she survived, happily ringing the bell at the end of her chemo treatment.
After moving from Townsville to Innisfail some years ago Wendy started a dog training business called Tropical Outdoor Performance Dog Sports (TOP DogS) where she taught positive reward-based puppy classes, pet dog training and more recently Scentwork. Her most recent accomplishment she was so proud of, was the completion of her Nationally Recognised Certificate III in Dog Behaviour and Training. She also reconnected with other club members with the newly introduced competitive sport of Scentwork gaining her Novice Scentwork Title and additional qualifying scores in Advanced Scentwork with her working kelpie, Gidgee.
Wendy was also an avid nature lover and could rattle off the names of many flora and fauna species in the Far North Region and in more recent times became a beekeeper selling honey at the local markets.
Wendy will be sadly missed by her family, friends and doggy acquaintances.
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